Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Greater New Orleans

Change Region

comments

Suspect in fatal shooting, incineration has been charged with two other murders

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
A member of the New Orleans Police homicide unit examines a burned vehicle as a crime scene technician takes measurements in the 2100 block of Pauline Street while investigating an early morning murder. The New Orleans Fire Department responded to the car fire and found the body of a badly burned male around the corner in the 3600 block of North Rocheblave Street. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police believe the car fire and the murder are related, but have yet to identify the victim or possible motive. Saturday, January 7, 2012.
(Photo by Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

The man accused of fatally shooting and burning 41-year-old Eric Robinson in January was selling drugs to the victim before killing him, New Orleans police say. The NOPD intends to book suspect Don "Crip" Brooks, 20, with one count of second-degree murder, but he has been in custody with his brother at the St. Tammany Parish jail since April on unrelated federal charges: alleged drug and weapons offenses, and the murders of two other men.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have linked Brooks and his brother, Antoine Brooks, 22, to the slayings of Harry Howard and Lamont Phillips, who were each 34 and gunned down days before Robinson was killed on Jan. 7. The Brooks brothers are facing the death penalty in federal court. They have pleaded not guilty, records show.

On the day he died, investigators believe Robinson was driving with another man in the 1300 block of Columbus Street, looking for drugs, according to records filed in court. A man on crutches -- eventually identified as Don Brooks -- then waved Robinson and his companion down and climbed into the car.

Brooks threw his crutches on the seat, removed a handgun from his waistband and set it down, Robinson's companion told police. Robinson's companion said he left the car at that point because he didn't want to be a part of the drug deal.

About 6 a.m. that day, New Orleans firefighters responded to a blaze in a grassy area at the corner of North Rocheblave and Independence streets. They discovered Robinson's charred body in the brush while extinguishing the fire and notified police.

Authorities soon spotted Robinson's car on fire in the nearby 2100 block of Pauline Street. They said they later learned Robinson had been shot in the head.

While investigating the murder, lead case detective Greg Johnson was told the person who was last with Robinson in the 1300 block of Columbus Street had crutches. Johnson wrote in paperwork that he knew Brooks used crutches. Brooks had also been shot in the buttocks in the 1300 block of Columbus Street on Jan. 11. Johnson said he determined Brooks sold drugs and was familiar with both of the areas where he was seen with Robinson and where the victim's body was found.

Robinson's companion on Columbus Street eventually picked Brooks out of a photographic lineup of six suspects, Johnson said. Johnson was then informed that Brooks was incarcerated on a variety of federal charges, mostly tied to drug-dealing.

Don Brooks, 20

According to a seven-count indictment in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Don and Antoine Brooks were selling crack and marijuana. They carried and used guns to do so, killing Harry Howard on New Year's Day and Lamont Phillips on Jan. 4 in the process, the indictment alleges.

Howard was shot multiple times in the 1600 block of North Villere Street and died on the scene. Then, the feds say, someone saw Phillips get shot 16 times with a .40-caliber pistol while selling drugs to Don Brooks in the 2600 block of North Tonti Street. As he died, Phillips allegedly told a police officer that "Crip," or Don Brooks, had shot him.

A witness saw a dark SUV flee from Phillips' shooting, hitting Phillips' car on the way out. A door handle was knocked off, and authorities determined that it belonged to either a Ford Explorer or Ford Escape. Officials were told Antoine Brooks drives a black Ford Explorer.

The next day, Antoine and Don Brooks were fired upon in a black Ford Explorer at the corner of Kerlerec and North Claiborne streets. Though Don Brooks was not wounded, Antoine Brooks was hit multiple times and hospitalized. Police impounded the Ford Explorer the Brookses were in. It was missing a driver's side door handle, records say.

The DEA obtained a warrant to arrest Don and Antoine Brooks on April 23, and the two were indicted May 3.

When Johnson realized where Don Brooks was, he contacted federal agents, who told him a bullet recovered from Robinson was a possible match to a gun confiscated from Brooks Jan. 11. Police booked Brooks with illegally carrying a weapon that day, but state prosecutors opted to not pursue a charge.

Police say Don Brooks' cell phone records placed him in the 1300 block of Columbus Street about the time Robinson was said to have been buying drugs there. Additionally, a cell tower picked up Don Brooks' cell phone in the area around where Robinson's body and car were located.

Brooks won't be extradited to Orleans Parish until his case in federal court is resolved, NOPD has said.